Well the party system is not usually used like lvl 12 and below, once ur up to lvl 14 or so partying is a must, you arent near it yet but later on you will see that you wont go anywhere without partying. Then at lvl 40 partying with a good sub job and the right combos matter alot and even more rely on your party even more extensively.

Then later on when most things are at least 7K and up doing guild trade jobs are profitable since you can sell rare stuff for alot of money in the AH. Some stuff cost over 20K, something no matter how many monsters u kill wont give u that many since its usually only 20 or so gil per beastmen kill.

For me, it doesnt get interesting til you get a sub-job and start going into basic partying. By the higher lvls, things become hard ><